ADHD and Education

School starts tomorrow.  Tomorrow!  Where did summer go?  Ryan starts Junior High....oh my goodness....and Alex will be in 5th grade.

Alex is the ADHD child of our family.  Well, he's the only one with formal diagnosis.  If we were taking bets, I'd say he comes by it honestly from my mother's daughter.  But I digress (...of course...).  So I'm looking over some paperwork from tonight's back to school events, and it occurs to me:  I need to write a letter!  I need to explain the dietary restrictions and perhaps provide some guidelines on what works and what doesn't. Our experience thus far is that the teachers don't get a lot of training on how to educate an ADHD child - so it's up to the parents to help them out.  Our experience has also been quite favorable in that area (we are firm believers that we are in a partnership with the school, and we have been very fortunate to have teachers and administrators who care and have the same goals as we have).

So I began crafting the letter.  Four pages later, along with an eight page addendum providing detailed strategies to accomodate specific behaviors, I had what I wanted.  While I was searching the net to find information to include, I came across the below from a website (www.4-adhd.com), and it really struck a chord.  My hope is that if my son writes a letter to me 10 years from now, he says "thank you for figuring it out and teaching me to cope."


What Your Son Wants To Tell You About His ADHD

Dear Mom and Dad:

I have Attention Deficit Disorder. It's something to do with the executive functioning in the brain's frontal lobes. I'm like a factory without a CEO. It feels that way sometimes - like no one's in charge and I'm out of control.

When I was little, I was so hyper you called me "the mother killer." I'm sorry I gave you a hard time, but it wasn't my fault. You took a lot of grief for having a brat, but my ADHD was behind it. I didn't mean to run away, smack other kids, jump in the pool with my clothes on and do all the other stuff I did. Stuff that made you unhappy.

That's why I am writing this. I want you to understand how ADHD feels and why I can't control myself. My ADHD means that I am easily distracted by things. I can sit in a movie like everyone else, but the man crunching popcorn next to me will bother me the entire picture. When I'm in class, I can't concentrate on the teacher because I'm too aware of the kid who's sharpening a pencil or the construction workers outside my class window. I'm no good at concentrating. Everything pulls my attention toward it - even if it's just for a few seconds. It takes a sonic boom to distract you. But EVERY LITTLE THING distracts me.

My ADHD means I'm impulsive. The popcorn man is ruining the movie for me so I may suddenly smack him. I may tell the boy who's sharpening his pencil to stop making so much noise. Then I'm in trouble for hitting the popcorn guy and yelling out loud in class. I'm always in trouble and making you look bad.

My ADHD means my sense of time is no good. Tomorrow may as well be twenty years from now. I don't think long-term. When my teacher says that this homework is due on Friday and Friday's five days away, I don't care. Five days is forever. Then when Friday comes, I'm dead where I stand because I haven't even started doing the work. When someone tells me that drinking will fry your liver twenty years from now, I don't care. I only care about how good that drink tastes in the moment and that it makes me feel less hyper and depressed. I know it's hard for you to understand, because you have day-timers and appointment books and Blackberries. Try to understand that I can't plan ahead - not even two hours from now. I can't even learn to plan ahead unless you teach me how to.

My ADHD means my sense of judgment is not only off, it's missing. Again, no executive function. I've heard of ADHD kids who die in extreme sports or one ADHD kid who jumped in a lake on a dare and ended up in a wheelchair because the water was only two feet deep. You need to know that I'd probably do the same thing. I'll take any dare offered. I don't see the risks involved because I live in the moment. I just think how cool it would be to jump in that lake and have everyone admire me.

I was lost in school by second grade. For one thing, school was always incredibly boring to me. I know my sister loves it, but I don't. For one thing, half the time they give us tasks I don't understand - like "write a term paper." I don't get how to go to the library, look up stuff, and take notes. If they would break it into small steps, I could do it, but they don't. They just say, "Write a term paper." Everyone else understands how to write a term paper or make a pie chart or whatever. I'm not stupid, but I just can't organize things. That's why I really started flunking out in middle school. I can't organize the work from one teacher, much less five teachers.

I wish they would not keep reminding me how high my IQ is and how I'm not applying myself. Most boys with ADHD have language-based learning disorders. We are not slow learners or dumb - -it's just that the words on the page jump around and we have trouble focusing our eyes on that stupid little print. I can't read very fast and I hate writing. I fail because school is all about reading. I know that there are computer programs and high-tech stuff to help ADHD kids, but they don't have them at my school.

I know you hate the kids I go around with, but they are the only ones who like me. The cool smart kids don't like me because I have a wicked mouth and don't know when to shut up. Also I don't get good grades. They're all worried about college and careers and stuff, but I can't think that far ahead. I don't have any goals and I wouldn't know how to set them.

I spend a lot of time playing video games. Like drinking, they calm me down. I get in the zone when I play X-Box because there's so much going on: shooting, characters, colors, quick reactions. The games work as fast as my brain, but when I stop, I get even more irritable. I know I act worse after I've been at them at day. It would be better if I would only be allowed to play them a few hours a day, but I guess you get welcome relief when I'm in that zone.

My favorite shirt says "NO BOUNDARIES." I can be really hostile to any limits you set. But I've heard that kids like me do better with regular hours for stuff. Like you wake up at a certain time, eat breakfast, and know exactly what's happening every hour. I know that would calm me down. That would take away a lot of anxiety I have inside me that everything is out of control. I also know I feel less jumpy when I get more exercise, but I usually don't bother. I just drift from one thing to another.

Sometimes I think no one likes me and that even you guys are sick of me. I know you wish I was more like my sister, Little Miss Perfect. If I give her a hard time, it's because I'm jealous. If you add up all the times she got yelled at since she was born, it would be less than five minutes. For me, I've been yelled at for whole years and lifetimes. I hate the way you yell so much and I really love you guys even if I don't show it. I wish I didn't have ADHD and I'm sorry I give you a hard time. I am trying hard all the time but it feels like I never get any pay-off no matter how hard I try. Trying really hard only moves me toward normal, it does not make me normal.

Well, this is my letter anyway. Maybe you understand ADHD a little better now. I love you.

Your Son



"I saw the angel in the marble, and I carved until I set him free."
 ~ Michelangelo

Over two years later...

I didn't realize it's been over two years since I did ANYTHING with this blog. Probably the only one reading it right now is me. Since I posted about strep in February 2010....so many things have happened in life! I'm two years older, my kids are huge. Ryan is almost as tall as I am and is starting junior high next week. Junior High! I about lost it when I went into the school to register him a few days ago.

At this moment, I have two cut up chickens simmering in a stock pot with a bunch of carrots and onions and spices to make some homemade chicken stock. Need to plan ahead for soup season. So back to this blog. I have some catching up to do. I debated deleting it. Facebook and Pinterest have captured my leisure time attention far more than a blog. That and the fact I preside over a women's club in my town, am a Webelos cub scout leader, the wife of the Cub Master, and yes, I still have a full-time-plus job as a manager. Oh, and the whole sports thing has kicked into overdrive already. I thought I had till high school for that. Not so much.

With facebook, I can post snippets of random thoughts without much time investment. But a friend the other day suggested I start a blog after a post that garnered about a zillion comments. You see, our youngest son was diagnosed last year with ADHD, which we have decided NOT to treat with medication. Instead, we have gone the diet changes route. And what a change that has been for our family!

Organic.
DHA/Omega 3 organic milk (to the tune of $9/gallon)
No gluten. That means no wheat. Ever.
No food dyes. Try finding snack items without Yellow #5 or Red #40 (the most evil one of all)
No additives/chemicals.
No high fructose corn syrup.
A course of vitamins including flaxseed oil, vitamin b complex, zinc, and some others. The child who couldn't swallow a tiny pill the size of baby aspirin now takes a handful of these things twice a day. Do you know how hard it is to find dye-free tylenol for kids???

100% effective? No. 100% stick-to-itiveness (is that even a word??)? No. But it has made a dramatic change in our little guy's world. Without changing HIM.

So I am at a crossroads. Our lives are getting busier every day. The plant where I and my husband work shuts down in October for a 4-6 week refueling and maintenance outage (translation: we work shifts of six 12-hour days per week). And takeout is not an option for supper due to where we live and the diet restrictions above. So homecooking still has to to happen. Do I keep the blog and shift the focus to life in ADHD? Still deciding....

Strep...

If you've never had strep throat, I hope you never get it. I've had it three or four times now. My most recent bout started last Thursday. I was just coming off of a bad cold that took me out the previous weekend, and I was sad that I had to miss my boy's basketball games on that Saturday. But I was feeling rather smug in that I'd kicked it loose in less than a week. But then last Thursday, I woke up with a wee bit of a sore throat - worse than I'd had with my cold the week before. I thought nothing of it and went to work as usual. Got back from my morning meetings and sat down to what I'd hoped would be a very productive day of business planning and what not. But suddenly I couldn't sit still, my whole body ached. I spiked a fever. I couldn't concentrate. So I went home. The closer I got to home, the further it seemed. I jumped into my jammies and crawled into bed.

My first thought: Flu. I did not get a flu shot. I did not get H1N1 vaccination either. Nope, I decided to take my chances. Maybe that was a bad call. Maybe not. Doesn't matter now, though.

As the afternoon wore on, I was sure it WASN'T flu. No, I remember these symptoms, exacerbated by the inability to swallow anything at all. Later that night, fever was higher and lucidity was low. Hubby took me to the ER (only thing open after hours in our little rural county). Sure enough - it was strep. They gave me a shot, wrote me a scrip for some antibiotics, and sent me home. The fact that you can't swallow is one thing, but the all-over, relentless body aches are almost unbearable. Even tylenol and ibuprofen at their max dosages couldn't keep up. But the good news is, the worst part of it only lasts about 24 hours and then it slowly gets better. Any improvement at all is greatly appreciated.

So I've missed work 3 straight days....my fever is finally gone (FINALLY) and I'm feeling a ton better now. Fatigued, but I think I can go back to work tomorrow without any ill effects (no pun intended). Some people don't get hit by strep that hard. Guess I'm lucky that way. But at least it wasn't the flu. 'Cuz I didn't get a flu shot and I wasn't gonna.

Valentine's Day

It's snowing gently outside today. It's cold, but we're cozy inside. The boys are playing, Ryan is thrilled because it's Daytona, and the Olympics are on. It's a good day. And the best part - no out of control craziness as a "holiday" - it's just a nice day to spend with my sweeties (all three of them).

I realize it's been two months since I updated my blog...I guess I go in spurts. Since my last update, I have gone back to work. I've been back about six weeks now. Getting used to waking up a lot earlier is probably the hardest part! I enjoyed my three months off, being home when my kids got home from school and sleeping till 0630 - that was luxurious! I actually enjoyed my at-home time more than I thought I would - I didn't climb the walls or pine away for adult conversation; after all, my kids are older now and most the time they amaze me with their insights, ability for abstract thought, and their innocent, fresh viewpoint on things I've taken for granted. I've also found they both have quite a sense of humor and regularly crack me up. I also busied myself volunteering at school and such, not to mention getting all that unpacking from the move done.

It was a blessed three months. I couldn't have asked for more. When my sweet husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him I already got it. It's liberating to know that I work because I want to. I'm not forced to (though honestly I've never felt I was "forced" to work). I have a new job now - I'm a manager at the plant where I work. I never thought I'd go that route but sometimes the path lays out for you and you take it. I'm learning the ropes as it's a new area for me, but I'm fortunate to have a very experienced, enthusiastic, and hard working staff.

Life is good and filled with love and blessings. I saw this on another blog I love to follow, and with due credit to Nuclear Mom, here are but a few of the things I love:

My husband
My children
My family
My friends
Soft warm blankets
Smooth jazz music
Hard rock, alternative, classical....ok, music in general
The ballet (Carmina Burana is my favorite)
A cactus silhouette at dusk
Camping
Really good, hot coffee
A hot shower
Cheesecake
A baby's laugh
Ironing
Clean laundry
A hardwood floor
Disney
The beach at Hanalei Bay and the smell of plumeria
A sleeping child
The smell of the desert after a rain
An encouraging word from my dear friends
Pictures of my past
Dark chocolate
My laptop
Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte (a fall tradition)
Harry Connick, Jr. at Christmas
Scrapbooking
new paper
Ribbon
Facebook
My 2001, 120000 mile Chevy 'Burb
My enV3 cell phone
My name
Laughing
The Flat Iron Cafe
Movies with my family
Girls' Night out (when and if it ever happens)
Game night with friends
Playing Tic
Harry Potter, Star wars....classic stuff!
My LL Bean flannel sheets and down comforter
Cuddling
.....
Life
.....
There are lots of things I love. I couldn't possibly list them all - these are just the things I came up with off the top of my head before I decided I can't sit here all day and write!

A Mom's Best Friend...

I've come to realize that a mom's best friends are a washer and dryer. One becomes acutely aware of this when their trusty sidekicks exit stage left, as mine did early in December. Good news was, I'd done the majority of the laundry. Normally fate doesn't work that way for me. So all I had were some half-washed bathrugs that I just decided to put in the dryer, which was itself on its last leg.

You can never be too prepared. My set was aging...and we had serviced both units so many times that we probably could have replaced them already. More than once. So this time, knowing that this day would be coming, I had my new set picked out. After much research and waffling, I landed on the Electrolux IQ Touch model. Massive. Energy Efficient. Massive. Has a Steam Setting. Massive. Has both quick wash and handwash cycles. Massive.

When that fateful day came, I was ready. I called my favorite store and asked if they had them in stock. Huzzah, they did! "I'll take them, please." Gave my credit card information over the phone and the next evening hubby drove the 1-1/2 hours with the trailer to pick them up. Funny thing was, even though I'd called the store directly, for some reason they listed pickup at their OTHER location, about 3 hours away. Unhappy hubby. Laundry beginning to pile up (it doesn't take long). Smart hubby, though. He went in to talk to customer service. I get the call, "Do you care what color they are?" "well, not really, but..." "Ok I think we have this figured out then." Hmmmm, what color was he going to come home with?

Well fortunately it worked out just fine, and now I have the behemoth washer and dryer set to end all washer and dryer sets....Heaven....

Gingerbread Houses

To me there is nothing quite like the scent of gingerbread at Christmastime. We always make gingerbread cookies at Christmas, and now, houses. My sister's fiancee's family has a tradition of decorating gingerbread houses every year, and we loved the idea. So we set to work. First, we sought out a candy store that carries old and new, in order to procure an unbelievable quantity of candy (really, an embarrasingly large amount). Then, we set to work making the gingerbread dough, and baking the individual pieces for the houses (I simply make a template and then cut the pieces out with a sharp knife).
















To glue together the houses, we use boiling sugar. It sets almost instantly and is near impossible to break.













We made 3 large houses (one for our family and the other two families, dear friends, who joined us) and two smaller ones (just 'cuz). Then we laid out the bowls and bowls of candy and the kids (six boys ages 10 and under) went to work! The kids had a great time and we had just as much fun helping and watching. And it didn't take me long to scrape up the remains from the kitchen floor, which amazes me.

Budding Triathlete

On the day we moved from Arizona, we first went to StarPointe (community center/pool) for a kids triathlon - Ryan's first! He competed in a run, bike ride around the lake (two laps) and then swimming.

He started out strong...but then later during the bike ride, after all the kids had gone by on the second lap, Ryan was nowhere to be found. I started to get worried - I wondered if something had happened to him? Why was he not coming around? After a very long time, he finally was coming up the last leg of the bike ride, tears streaming down his face. He had gotten a flat tire! And yet, he continued to ride...or try to anyway. I would have quit, but not him. He didn't even get off the bike. He actually pedaled it all the way, as hard as it was for him. He came in last, but he was first in tenacity!

Stretching before the big race.

And they're off!



Now to the bikes.


This next picture is after the second lap - when he rode most the lap on a flat tire. The man next to him stuck by him the whole time, encouraging him. We found out later that the event staffers were radioing each other about the problem - but that "this kid still wants to finish".


Following that grueling bike ride, he jumped into the pool and did his swimming laps.


After all that, he still ran to the finish line. Disappointed, but undeterred!

A 10 year old and an 8 year old...

SO as if having a 10 year old wasn't enough....Alex turned 8 on Thanksgiving Day. I wondered when and if his birthday would ever fall on Thanksgiving - wonder no more!

Eight years ago, we had family visiting for Thanksgiving. The family did most of the thanksgiving dinner work - I couldn't stay on my feet very long (very swollen) and the contractions would really get going, telling me I needed to slow down. So I'd sit down, put up my edema-riddled feet and the contractions would stop. They were never very regular, but they were strong. Pretty strong for Braxton-Hicks, I thought, but they couldn't possibly be "real" - I wasn't due for another month. I was prepping myself for having a Christmas baby. The plant where we worked was in the middle of a maintenance/refueling outage during that time as well, so I worked that weekend a little for the outage. The following Monday, everyone was either back home or back at work (my mother in law was also working the outage at the time). I had to leave work early for a doctor's appointment - and since it was the last month of the pregnancy, the appointments would now be weekly. Hubby drove me the hour and a half to my OB/GYN; that was another peculiarity of this pregnancy - if I was driving a car for more than 30 minutes, I'd get some serious contractions, with alarming regulatiy. It wasn't as bad as a passenger, but still happened.

So we went in for the appointment. When my doctor did the examination she looked at me, startled, and asked "Are you in labor?" I was pretty sure I wasn't. She exclaimed that I was 6 cm dialated and 80% effaced. Holy cow! I guess those weren't Braxton-Hicks after all. "Woo-hoo," I thought, "I did that standing on my head. I am Iron Woman! I may not even need an epidural for this one." Yeah right, whatever. "I can't let you go home," our doctor informed us, "...you need to go straight to the hospital. We're having a baby tonight." WOW! That was unexpected. Guess I shouldn't have said "See you tomorrow" to my coworkers when I left...and then it hit me...omg, this baby will be a month early. I started to worry.

So off to the hospital we went. They hooked me up to all manner of monitor and what not - no big deal, I wasn't a rookie this time. My girlfriend Jenn, bless her heart, stayed at our house and took care of our then-two year old, Ryan, while all of this was going on. I was put on a pitocin drip to speed things along. But later that night, we found that I'd only dilated 2 more cm. "We'll have to do another c-section," my doctor informed us. I was devastated - terrified by my last experience (I got really sick). I thought for sure I'd be able to do this one the old fashioned way. Not so much.

But no matter...it wasn't long before our baby joined us...another boy!! My sweet baby Alexander...and my recovery was MUCH better this time...He's still my baby, too.

A Decade Gone By...

Time flies when you're having fun, right? 10 years ago on November 7, the birth of my son inducted me into the ranks of motherhood. 10 years. That's double digits. Approximately 3652.5 days. One decade. Not going there with the number of hours/minutes...I'm certain the size of the number would be too much for me.

We got out his baby book and looked at the pictures from before he was born and the day he was born, and then the ensuing months of capturing every smirk, smile, and coo. That little boy changed our world, and we are so blessed. Every minute of it. Every question of "am I doing the right thing" to celebrating his successes with him. He's changed so much in the last few years, coming into his own. And yet he is still just a little boy.

Ryan woke up to a new bike, a Jeff Gordon jacket, and some walkie talkies, among other things from his grandparents and family.


This marked the second year that I didn't do all the party planning per se; instead we took him and 7 of his friends to a pizza place that has rides and go karts and all manner of things that attract 10 year old boys. They had a blast!



I marvel at how I now have a 10 year old. It's been said that once you have a child, you completely forget what your life was like before children. While that is not entirely true, there is something to be said about sharing the memories of your days with a small one that you helped bring into the world....

He Didn't Go

I can't remember the last time Halloween was on a Saturday. Perhaps we were working a refueling outage, didn't have children yet, or the kids were so little it didn't really matter. So this year, with it being on a Saturday, we had that big party, and it was a lot of fun. So much so, I couldn't help but look at pictures and think about it all day the next day. I think the kids all running around having Star Wars battles (those lit light sabers are great for figuring out where your kids are after the sun goes down) and line dancing were my favorite parts. The Midori Sours were pretty good, too, even if we did run out.

Then it hit me. Ryan didn't go trick or treating.

I talked to him about it, gingerly probing to see if he'd merely forgotten, all the while concerned I'd be opening a pandora's box of regret and misery. No such thing occurred. He was fully aware he'd not gone trick or treating, and it didn't seem to matter. "I was just having too much fun, mom." Wow, he was having so much fun at the party, that leaving to go beg for candy didn't even hit his priority list. Or is it simply coincidence with the fact that he is growing up?

Thanksgiving Dinner Preview

Tonight is the monthly meeitng for a women's club I'm a part of, and this year the November meeting theme is a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner. I volunteered to make the cranberries and stuffing. Neither of which come from a can or box, respectively. Soooo I've spent the better part of my day in the kitchen preparing the turkey dressing (which started with the unenviable task of boiling turkey giblets and the neck), and my signature cranberry-pear chutney. I always make the chutney whenever we host Thanksgiving - found the recipe years and years ago and gave it a try, loved it, and made it part of our family's tradition. The stuffing, which has been in my husband's family for a few generations, is another story. I absolutely LOVE it. But I've never made it before! The tradition is that the men of the house (usually my FIL) do the turkey and the stuffing; the women take care of everything else (though my husband rocks at making mashed taters). So today, I'm making it for the very first time. To share with 25 or so other ladies.

I was disappointed with the chutney, I think I overcooked it a bit so the bright ruby red color is not as vivid, but hopefully it still tastes good. The stuffing is ready to be baked, which I will do shortly before I depart for the festivities. Meanwhile, a small turkey is slowly roasting (needed it for making the stuffing!), so that my family will also get a little preview of our dinner in 3-1/2 weeks! Another first for me...like I said, the men of the family normally roast the turkey, so I sure hope this one turns out as good as when my husband does it. Time will tell!

Now I need to clean up the amazing mess I made in the kitchen...

A few more Halloween photos...

You'd think, as a scrapbooker, I'd be Susie-on-the-Spot with the camera. I usually am. But yesterday was a different story. I'm blaming it on the fake eyelashes and nails. I didn't get ANY pictures of Alex in his Halloween costume. Good grief, there goes my MOTY award (Mom Of The Year)...again. But we recovered smartly. This afternoon, that is.

Me: "Alex, go put on your costume."
Alex: "But why?"
Me: "Mommy wants to get some pictures of you. It won't take long."
Alex: "I don't want to right now. I'm playing."
Me: "Alex, go put on your costume."
Alex: "But it itches."
Me: "Alex, go put on your costume."
Alex: "Do I have to?"
Me: "ALEX, GO PUT ON YOUR COSTUME!"

Alex finally put it on...and we went outside to take pictures. He seemed to enjoy getting into the part!

A few halloween pictures...

Unfortunately, we didn't get many photos...I was too busy being Wanda the Party Witch and Rich was too busy manning the bar (the midori sours were a HUGE hit...we ran out of Midori! Note to self, buy at least 6 bottles of the 750 mL size next time...)

Halloween....

Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to put on fake eyelashes? Since I'd never done it before, it was quite entertaining, however the glue in my eye wasn't so much fun. It was time to change my contact lenses out anyway.

So I finally got them on, did the makeup and wig, and donned my coveted purple gown and hat. The look was finished with a heaven-knows-how-old rhinestone necklace (I got it from an uncle who inherited a lady friend's estate when I was in high school...so truly I have no idea how old it is...but I wore it to several proms and dances and christmas parties) and rhinestone earrings. Seconds before walking out the door to our town's 35th annual halloween parade, I realized I forgot the nails! I can't forget the nails, they are a key part of the costume! So I madly tried to press on 10 black nails with little skull and rhinestone accents, and away we went!

Once the parade was over, we finished preps for the Halloween bash...a great time was had by all!!!!

My Halloween Playlist

Here is my compilation of mu-zak for our Halloween Party. I have several other obscure tunes I may dig into like Wall of Voodoo and such...but this is what I downloaded the other day. Some is for dancing, some for the kids, some for chillin', some 'cuz they're halloween classics and a few just cuz I've always loved them!

Dead Man's Party (Oingo Boingo)
Hotel California (Eagles)
Wild Thing (Tone-Loc)
Rock Lobster (B-52’s)
Macarena (Los del Río)
Shout (Otis Day & The Knights)
King of Pain (The Police)
Thriller (Michael Jackson)
Renegade (Styx)
Werewolves of London (Warren Zevon)
Feed My Frankenstein (Alice Cooper)
Bob That Head (Rascal Flatts)
Chicken Fried (Zac Brown Band)
Toes (Zac Brown Band)
Unbelievable (EMF)
Witchy Woman (Eagles)
Enter Sandman (Metallica)
Cha-cha Slide (MC Jig)
Monster Mash (Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers)
Ghostbusters (Ray Parker, Jr., Ghostbusters Original Soundtrack Album)
Time Warp (Little Nell, Patricia Quinn & Richard O'Brien – soundtrack)
Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)
I Like to Move It from Madagascar (The Party Cats)
Brick House (The Commodores)
Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
Let's Groove (Earth, Wind & Fire)
Burning Down the House (Talking Heads)
Rapture (Blondie)
Dirty Diana (Michael Jackson)
Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve)
Super Freak (Rick James)
Fantasy (Aldo Nova)
Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
The Devil Went Down to Georgia (The Charlie Daniels Band)
Moving In Stereo (The Cars)
Black Magic Woman (Santana)
Get Up, Stand Up (Bob Marley)
Jamming (Bob Marley)
Could You Be Loved (Bob Marley)
All Around Me (Flyleaf)
Small Town USA (Justin Moore)
Twilight Zone (Golden Earring)
Let It Whip (Dazz Band)
Secret Separation (The Fixx)
T-R-O-U-B-L-E (Travis Tritt)
Watermelon Crawl (Tracy Byrd)
Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) (Big & Rich)
Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich) (Big & Rich)
Jungle Love (The Time)

More on Facebook

First thing I did this morning was check status updates on Facebook. Before I take a sip from my first cup of coffee. Before I get dressed. Before I go to the bathroom even. But it goes in phases with me. Sometimes I'll check every 20 minutes (when I'm home); other times I'll go for days. This week, we've all been particularly active, especially when I posted a VERY short list of music I'd selected for our halloween party mix. That got people's attention, and down memory lane we all went. So I just can't wait to see what the next person may have commented. It doesn't hurt that I'm off work till January next year. I do have a bit of extra time that I never had before to do this. (So warning to everyone: when I start work again in January, I'm pretty sure the regular postings throughout the day will drop to periodic postings throughout the month.)

So I'm reading through these comments and following other threads and comments and it hit me why facebook is so addicting. It's the cyber window to a person's soul. For those who don't blog and spill their mind's trappings that way, facebook creates the medium where you can see what makes a person tick. And it's fascinating. You learn about your old friends and new based on what they post, and how others comment on those posts. For instance, when I posted part of my music mix includes the Bee Gees, the comments opened wide. And one of my friends from ELEMENTARY/JR HIGH school (after 9th grade we went to different high schools and I never saw her again) commented how the Bee Gees always reminded her of ME in 5th grade! 5th grade! Another friend listed a panacea of early 80's not-so-mainstream hits and some very popular ones...revealing to the world his eclectic taste and deep knowledge of all things music.

The desire to connect and for companionship - a sense of belonging - is as great a human need as food and water. And that is why Facebook is so addicting. It's one avenue that fills that great need, with simplicity and very low risk. And it's fun.

Might As Well Face It, I'm Addicted to....

...FACEBOOK. Yes I am. I "discovered" it shortly after Christmas 2008 after reading my dear friend Mare's Christmas letter (and Yes I know that it was already the rage everywhere for quite a long time; all things in due time, I say). She mentioned she and her husband were on Facebook, and for the first time I decided to check it out. I wasn't sure what all the hub-bub was about, but still I created an account. And the seduction began.

As I began navigating through the various features, I thought, "this is kinda neat." And then people started "friending" me and I started friending them. I'd connected with people I haven't seen and/or talked to in two decades or more. I was suddenly having regular conversations with old high school pals that I'd hung out with, went to Mexico with, and otherwise loved to death, but we parted ways after graduation never to hear from or see one another again...till the ubiquitous Facebook! I found myself, when I had little spare time, staying up till midnight so I could look around and see what folks were up to. I found myself checking it every so often to see if there was a new status update. "Oh look! Chris just got a cup of coffee! Good for him! Cute profile picture of Michele's baby! And hey, Jeanene just passed me a drink!" Fun fun fun! For days I was glued to it every free moment I had. And when I discovered I could access it from my cell phone - yeah buddy I was hooked for good. So now I understand why they call it Crackbook. Crackbook is probably one of the reasons I dropped off blog world several times, because it's just so EASY to quickly type up a line or two about what is happening in your life and to see what others are up to. Since that time, I've simmered down some, and the addiction is not so acute. It's more of a chronic need. And it's fun.

I don't really do the games and other applications on there, though on occasion I will type up one of those "25 random questions about you" things or pass a drink to someone. Several of my friends are deeply involved in the facebook mafia wars, farmville, and other games; those just haven't appealed to me. But I do get a kick out of the status updates from those who play.

So yeah, I'm pretty much addicted. But I can quit whenever I want.

What drew me home...

Our home in the fall...so peaceful and so pretty!

Distractions...

Yes, I know. It's been months and months since I've blogged. Followers may have given up on me. But I haven't completely forgotten I have this thing. I've been a bit...distracted. For instance, since my last post, we moved. Yes, moved. Back to our old house in a completely different state. I'm pretty sure I had just finished unpacking our last box from the move to Arizona, and then everything got boxed up again. I can't believe how much *crap* we have. I don't consider myself a packrat, but perhaps I need to reevaluate that... We did do some purging when we moved in February 2008, but this move happened so fast it was basically just "pack it all and load 'em up." Fortunately, in both cases, the company we work for takes care of the move so we don't have to actually do it ourselves. That would REALLY suck.

So here's how it went down. Hubby and I met many moons ago (coming up on 19 years) in Arizona at the nuke plant there. After a couple years of courtship, we wed. A couple of years after that, he had an opportunity to go permanent at another nuke in the midwest, and so did I. I was not in the least thrilled with the prospect. I love the desert. I love Arizona. I didn't want to leave. But I follow my heart first and so the man and I moved to Missouri.

Shortly after moving, we bought a house. We affectionately refer to it as the "money pit" because it's about 150 years old (at least parts of it) and needed a lot of work. We thought it would be *fun*. Princess here realized she does not like do-it-yourself fixer-uppers. At all. No matter, we thought "five years and out" anyway, so we'd just hunker down and work hard.

In late 1999, we had a baby! It had been 3 years since we'd moved to Missouri. Only two more years left! In late 2001, baby #2 arrived. It had been almost exactly five years, but of course with a newborn we weren't going to be planning on any big moves and there weren't really any job options we were interested in. Ok, we'll stick around a little longer.

A few years later, we found ourselves to be quite settled and content in our little midwest town. The kids had lots of friends, and so did we. We became active in the community and realized how wonderful it is. Then we did some craziness - we completely remodeled a good portion of the house (many of our friends said we built from the inside out...). We designed the kitchen to end all kitchens (for us anyway!) I'll post some pictures a little later, if I don't drop off blogger again. :-)

February 2008: We got our chance to go back home to Arizona. The chief nuclear officer at the plant there, with whom I've worked before, really wanted me to come and help them. I initially said no. They persisted. It was a package deal. The offer was sweet. We ultimately said yes, but it was extremely hard. Security and stability are wickedly important to me, so after almost 12 years, ripping up my roots, even to take me to somewhere familiar, was incredibly difficult. We did it anyway.

The jobs were great. The work was hard, but fulfilling (troubled plants are a lot of fun; stressful, but it's fun to be part of turning things around). But it was too much. I wasn't getting home until 7 or 8 at night. Hubby was working 60-70 hour weeks regularly. It was taking its toll. The kids were not happy. After 7 months, we ended up visiting a counselor, to see what we could do to help them. The little guy's reading got worse. Our oldest's behavior was challenging (which is somewhat to be expected as he enters the tween phase of his life...omg did I just say that???!!!). But we would persevere. Gotta give it a chance, and that means at least a year or more.

The call from the midwest came during the summer. "What would it take to get you back?" they asked my spouse. Now what do we do? It had been almost 18 months and things were not getting better in AZ, but move again? Are you kidding? True to form, I suggested we respectfully decline. Until we started laying out all the facts in plus/delta form. Notwithstanding the fact that the house in Missouri still hadn't sold; two mortgage payments do take their toll. After much heart wrenching discussion, we came to the realization that maybe home is actually in Missouri, and not Arizona after all. The negotiations began. They really wanted hubby back, but I needed to stay at least through September to get the plant through its accreditation (the main reason I was brought there). By the time all was said and done, we agreed on a start date in October for hubby, and January for me. The moving trucks came, and like a flash we were gone.

It's been a little over 3 weeks now, and I'm finally starting to calm down. The main living areas are unpacked and organized, but there are still a zillion boxes in the basement and the garage. Hubby has started work again and has been completely spoiled since I don't go back until January, and he has a homecooked meal ready every night. After all, I hadn't cooked in almost 18 months; I need to make up for lost time!

So now I'm looking for my new normal. The stress that had built up for months and months is starting to release. The kids are rock stars back at school. Everyone we meet tells us how happy they are we came back. This is where we belong.

The Grandeur of Arizona

Arizona - it's more than a desert. Unless you've been here, you may not know that. Sedona, where we got married, is indescribably beautiful. And the Grand Canyon - well - you just have to see it...

Some close friends of ours came to visit and we decided we needed to show them our state! I will post pictures...but it doesn't do the beauty of this land justice...